salt

The researchers were then charged with a salt and battery.

Rechargeable lithium batteries basically make the world we live in possible. They power our phones, computers, and basically everything else—but they're not perfect. As they go through recharge cycles, they never come back quite as strong and wear out over time. Researchers at Cornell University think they've found a solution: Salt.

The differences between margarine and butter are pretty clear, right? One is processed vegetable oil -- the other is good old-fashioned cream and salt. One is the finest of all possible ingredients that can save nearly any recipe if applied in time. The other is, well, margarine. What margarine does have going for it, though, is that it's better for your health than delicious, artery-clogging butter -- or is it? In their latest video, AsapSCIENCE details the chemical differences between butter and margarine, suggesting that margarine might not be the lifesaver we tend to think it is. Too bad, margarine -- if you don't actually have the health factor working in your favor, this really just stopped being a contest at all.

Cautiously Optimistic

After Salt made more than $300 million when its box office was tallied, Salt 2 seemed like an obvious choice. But after the first movie's director bowed out of any franchise plans and Angelina Jolie herself rejected the first attempt at a script, things seemed dead in the water. At least until now, when Columbia Pictures has hired Becky Johnston to take another run at the script.
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A clam's no pet, they said. Get a pet rock, they said. Well, the joke's on them! Wonder Clam can eat salt all day and all night! Next, she'll learn "shake hands" and before you know it, she'll be catching frisbees and jumping through hoops. Soon, she'll be doing a victory lap in front of the judges after she's named "Clam-of-Show." They'll see who's laughing then. That'll show 'em. That'll show 'em all!

Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto's preferred artistic medium is salt, and he built this fairly tall staircase made out of salt bricks not only due to his preference of medium, but to signify loss and ruin, as the staircase crumbles when faced with a simulated earthquake.

This monochromatic tableau is part of a new exhibition featuring the work of Ken and Julia Yonetani called Sense of Taste, currently on display at the GV Art gallery in London. Modeled after a traditional still life painting, this sculpture presents a decadent meal of cheese, fruit, wine, fresh fish, and lobster. However, it is made entirely out of salt.
At first blush, making a meal entirely out of salt is a clever inversion of the viewers expectations, or just a sure sign that Bender has been cooking again. However, the Yonetani's work has a very specific message, as the three salts used in the work come from a region of Australia called the "food bowl." Though it has traditionally supplied most of the country with fresh fruit and vegetables, agricultural irrigation systems are making water in the area increasingly salty. So salty, in fact, that 500,000 tons of the stuff must be removed annually from the region. In that light, the work is a direct challenge to the viewer to consider the impact their life has on the environment. The duo has also created coral reefs made of sugar, symbolizing the deadly impact of silt run off from the sugar cane industry on reef life.
While some might find art with so pointed a message a bit distasteful (pun?), it's impossible to deny the incredible craftsmanship of these works. Read on after the break for some more choice images.
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Aside from being terrifying, the reason why these frog legs twitch and jiggle when salt is added is because they're fresh, which means the cells inside them are still intact and store ATP molecules that can be manipulated until the energy is expended. In this case, they are being manipulated by the salt because salt contains sodium ions that create voltage differences, which helps trigger the twitching. Read more about why salt makes frog legs freaky over at HowStuffWorks.

The city of Bergen County, New Jersey, is slated to become the most delicious smelling city in America. Provided, of course, that you are a fan of deli pickles. In the wake of a rough, stormy winter season on the east coast, the affluent enclave has turned to pickle brine as a cheaper alternative rock salt to keep their roads clear and navigable.
From the Time Magazine newsfeed blog:

And the price can't be beat: the briny mixture costs just 7 cents a gallon, compared to $63 a ton for salt. Quick math works the pickle juice out to roughly $16 per ton [...]

This is just one more use for pickle brine after it's recent resurgence on the cocktail scene. If it can keep our roads clean and chase our shots, is there nothing that preserved foods can't do? Next up: 101 uses for putrefied shark fin.
(via Time newsfeed, image via TeaWithBuzz)
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Turns out the early speculation that Salt was likely to beat out Inception at the box office this past weekend was premature: Inception is still the #1 box office movie in America, with a box office of $43.5 million, bringing its U.S. total up to $143.6 million for its first ten days in theaters. Salt, for its part, didn't do too shabbily, taking the #2 spot with #36.5 million.
Are box office horse races a little silly? Sure. But we at least understand the origins of this one: